After a sluggish 2025, construction and development in Pasco is on an upswing.

Permits issued for new single-family homes, townhouses and multifamily construction are up 66% or more through the first eight months of 2026 compared to the year prior.

One of the most anticipated civic projects – the $51 million Pasco Aquatics Center – was completed in June and welcomed swimmers from across the Tri-Cities.

Amazon has finally activated the second of two massive warehouses that had remained dormant since being built in 2021 and plans to hire hundreds.

A major national box store is set to open its next location in the already packed Road 68 corridor.

“I think there are few communities in the nation growing at the pace we are,” said City Manager Harold Stewart.

Now city leaders are hoping to maintain the momentum and transfer it to related efforts, from expansive commercial developments to transportation infrastructure, all of it aimed at improving the city and making it attractive to future residents and businesses.

Permit uptick

The total value of building permits issued in Pasco through August 2026 was $285.7 million. That’s below the recent high-water mark of $345.9 million recorded during the same period in 2024 but above $100 million more than the city processed last year, according to data from the Home Builders Association of the Tri-Cities.

Residential construction continues to make up a large share of the projects. Permits for single-family homes topped 300 at the end of August 2026, a 64% increase over in the same period the previous year. Fifteen multifamily projects were permitted, more than was approved the two years prior combined. Same for townhouses.

As with last year, a significant amount of those housing starts are either in the Broadmoor area or off nearby Burns Road.

And the permits only represent those homes currently under construction. More than 1,000 more housing lots are currently under review by the city for the proposed Cherry Bloom, Desert Bloom and Wilson Acres developments in the Broadmoor area, as well as an additional phase of Glacier Park north of Burns Road and east of Road 68, according to city planning records.

More retail development

While residential construction has long powered Pasco’s construction market, Stewart is eager to see other projects take off.

“We want to recruit more retail development,” he said. “We want to be more self-sustaining, not just a bedroom community.”

The undisclosed big box retailer planning to build on the lot next to Lowe’s just off Road 68 fits that bill. Completion of the aquatics center also provides a sorely needed community space.

But its the two proposed retail and mixed-use developments in the Broadmoor area west of Road 100 that are leading Stewart to consider the area a multigenerational draw.

Ohio-based Visconsi Companies Ltd. has submitted plans for Riverbend Marketplace, a 92-acre commercial hub in the Broadmoor area with an estimated project cost of $100 million to $150 million.

“We’re really excited. The city has been great to work with, and we’re just looking forward to breaking ground,” Brad Goldberg, executive vice president of development for Visconsi, previously told the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business. He said Pasco was picked for its good demographics and growth, saying the company tends to select “emerging markets with a lot of long-term potential.”

Stewart said announcements regarding the first phase of the project are near at hand, and the city has already agreed to disconnect a portion of Harris Road to facilitate the development. He added that there is already substantial interest in the project’s second phase, but the developer is focused on the immediate project.

Another developer is looking at developing an upscale mixed-use project in Broadmoor as well, Stewart said. City officials are still in discussions with the developer but preliminary plans call for retail, restaurants and multifamily spaces as well as an outdoor plaza and other amenities.

“I think overall we’d like to see Broadmoor become a reality sooner,” Stewart said. “We just want to make sure we take our time and do it right.”

The city of Pasco wants to build an overpass above Interstate 182 that would extend Road 76 beyond the traffic circle that intersects with Chapel Hill Boulevard to Burden Boulevard on the other side of the highway.

| Photo by Nathan Finke

Finding funding

The city’s goals for growth also make it important to support all the development it is encouraging, especially as its population continues to steadily climb. The city’s population is 85,560, according to recent data from the state Office of Fiscal Management. That’s an increase of more than 2,500 people, or about 3%, compared to a year ago.

The planned Road 76 overpass that would fully connect the traffic corridor over Interstate 182 “is probably our highest priority road infrastructure project,” Stewart said. Once built, it would alleviate pressure at the nearby Road 68 corridor by giving traffic south of I-182 another means to get to the commercial district.

While the city has already received $3.79 million as a Federal Surface Transportation Block Grant to help pay for the project’s design and acquiring right of way, tens of millions more dollars are needed to pay for construction.

Efforts to secure state funding have not been successful. Stewart said city officials are continuing to promote the project’s benefits among state and federal lawmakers in a bid to secure needed financing.

The city also needs another $2.2 million to begin the second phase of improvements at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in east Pasco. The first phase, which opened to the community earlier this year, added new classrooms, a community room and a secure outdoor play area while bringing that portion of the building up to code.

Tax incentives

City officials are taking additional steps to ensure people and businesses have reason to keep coming to Pasco for years to come.

City staff are currently reviewing applications for requests for proposals for several city-owned buildings in downtown with an eye to supercharge activity in the area. Peanuts Park, home to the city’s farmers market, has also been improved, and the city is considering closing Fourth Avenue where it runs alongside its northern portion to make a pedestrian plaza.

The city also is looking at establishing a targeted urban area, or TUA, to provide tax incentives for manufacturers to base their businesses in the city, specifically in the industrial areas such as in the Big Pasco Industrial Center and around the Tri-Cities Airport and the Highway 395 corridor.

The effort is akin to the city of Richland’s TUA in the northern part of the city that has helped secure projects such as the proposed Atlas Agro green fertilizer plant. Under a TUA, qualifying businesses would be able to exempt the value of newly constructed manufacturing facilities from city property taxation for a period of 10 years.

“Adopting a Targeted Urban Area designation would position Pasco as a more competitive destination for manufacturing investment at a time when the region's industrial land supply represents a meaningful economic development asset,” according to a memo to Pasco City Council members. “The program directly advances the council’s goal of expanding family-wage employment opportunities in Pasco by tying the exemption to a mandatory job creation threshold.”